{ program notes
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Following international tours as both concertmaster and soloist with numerous ensembles, Mr. Carney was invited by Vladimir Ashkenazy to become concertmaster of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 1991. He was also appointed concertmaster of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in 1994 and the Basque National Orchestra in 1996. Recent solo performances have included concertos by Bruch, Korngold, Khatchaturian, Sibelius, Nielsen, the Brahms Double Concerto and Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending, which was featured as a live BBC broadcast from London’ s Barbican Hall. Mr. Carney has made a number of recordings, including concertos by Mozart, Vivaldi and Nielsen, sonatas by Brahms, Beethoven and Franck, and a disc of virtuoso works of by Sarasate and Kreisler with his mother Gloria Carney as pianist. New releases include Beethoven’ s Archduke and Ghost trios, the cello quintet of Schubert and a Dvorak disc with the Terzetto and four Romantic pieces for violin.
Mr. Carney currently serves as Artistic Director for the Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras and is an artist-in-residence at the Baltimore School for the Arts, where he serves on the Board of Directors.
Mr. Carney performs on a 1687 Stradivarius, the Mercur-Avery, on which he uses“ Vision” strings by Thomastik-Infeld. Mr. Carney’ s string sponsor is Connolly & Co., exclusive U. S. importer of Thomastik- Infeld strings.
Jonathan Carney last appeared as a soloist with the BSO in November 2015, performing Vivaldi’ s Four Seasons, Marin Alsop, conductor.
About the concert:
Capriccio espagnol
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Born in Tikhvin, Novgorod, Russia, March 18, 1844; died in Lyubensk, Russia, June 21, 1908
In his autobiography, Nikolai Rimsky- Korsakov recalled with pleasure the first rehearsal in St. Petersburg for the premiere of his Capriccio espagnol.“ The first movement … had hardly been finished when the whole orchestra began to applaud. Similar applause followed all the other parts wherever the pauses permitted. I asked the orchestra for the privilege of dedicating the composition to them. General delight was the answer.”
“ The opinion formed by both critics and the public that the Capriccio is a magnificently orchestrated piece is wrong.”
Orchestral musicians rarely greet a new work with applause— more often they’ re silently cursing its difficulties. But here they recognized a work that, despite its considerable challenges, was a joy to play and moreover, made them— singly and collectively— sound like kings. Today it is still considered one of the symphony orchestra’ s great showpieces.
Even so, Rimsky stressed that his concept went far beyond attractive scoring.“ The opinion formed by both critics and the public that the Capriccio is a magnificently orchestrated piece is wrong. The Capriccio is a brilliant composition for the orchestra. The change of timbres, the felicitous choice of melodic designs and figuration patterns exactly suiting each kind of instrument, brief virtuoso cadenzas for solo instruments, the rhythm of the percussion instruments, etc. constitute here the very essence of the composition and not its clothing or orchestration. The Spanish themes of dance character furnished me with rich material for … orchestral effects.”
Capriccio espagnol is in five brief, interlinked movements. Since it was originally conceived as a violin / orchestral fantasy on Spanish themes for Rimsky’ s colleague at the Russian Imperial Chapel, P. S. Krasnokusky, the violin plays the leading role among the many soloists. But the clarinet is first into the spotlight in the opening“ Alborada,” an exuberant adaptation of the traditional Spanish
18 Overture | bsomusic. org